Vim-PlatformIO

Introduction

This is a collection of helper commands for VIM to ease the use of PlatformIO with VIM.

Its very much a WIP, its literally just parts of my vimrc outsourced into a plugin.

Features

• Select board from a list
• Create project incl. Makefile
• Search and install libararies from a list
• Commands tab-complete boards, libraries
• Errors and warnings with jumpmarks to relevant code files
• Supports code completion (needs language server plugin, see below)

Installation

PlatformIO Core

Make sure you have the PlatformIO command line tools installed.

On MacOS with Homebrew installed just do:

brew install platformio

Plugin

With vim-plug installed, add this to your vimrc:

Plug 'normen/vim-pio'

Documentation

Use :h pio in vim for documentation of all commands and options.

Basic Commands

• :PIO
  • Mirrors the command line command and opens a term window. Note theres always only one PIO window.
• :PIOInit <boardname>
  • Supply a board name (tab-completes) and create a new project in the current folder based on that board.
  • Can be used without a parameter to refresh the project properties and update the LSP files (see below).
• :PIOInstall <libraryname>
  • Supply a library name (tab-completes) and install it.
• :PIOUninstall <libraryname>
  • Supply a library name (tab-completes) and uninstall it.
• :PIONewProject <search>
  • Shows a list of boards, press enter on a board name to create a new project in the current folder based on that board.
• :PIOAddLibrary <search>
  • Shows a list of libraries, press enter on a library name to add it to the project.
• :PIORemoveLibrary
  • Shows a list of installed libraries, press enter on a library name to remove it from the project.

Makefile

The plugin creates a Makefile, this way you can use a simple :make to compile or a :make upload to compile and upload your code to your microcontroller.

Other things

Code completion

To have code completion in vim you'll need the Clangd or CCLS language server installed as well as a plugin for vim to use it.

Example LSP plugins for vim:

• vim-lsp
• Vim9 lsp
• nvim LSP (built in)
• coc.nvim

Please refer to the documentation of the LSP plugins for how to set them up.

vim-pio uses PlatformIOs built-in functions to create .ccls and compile-commands.json files which can be picked up by CCLS and Clangd respectively.

Hint

If Clangd can't pick up the correct folders for some reason, add this to your platformio.ini:

[default]
build_flags=-Isrc -Ilib

Background Make

I suggest also installing the awesome vim-dispatch plugin by tpope to be able to use :Make instead of :make to run compilations in the background.

Further Info

This plugin is based on the built-in VIM and ccls support of PlatformIO, check out the information here